Unspoken
by dbsavmlvr
Summary: "She hadn't seen or spoken to Logan for nine years," but that didn't mean they hadn't communicated. Vmficrecs October prompt challenge- "Epic How?" Movie spoiler- no copyright infringements intended, just borrowing some characters
1. Veronica- those 9 years

It had been over nine months since she had bought a burner phone. Nine months since she'd done anything remotely on the down low. She'd been obsessing about how to handle this for days. Weeks. She'd seen the date coming and known that she needed, no wanted, to acknowledge it. She didn't want to call. She couldn't hear his voice, even on voicemail, and stay strong, but she did want to let him know… What exactly was she planning on telling him? Would he call back? Would he even know that it was her? Maybe he'd think it was a wrong number. A text gone wrong. Or some random girl who he'd given his number. She'd risk it, though. She wasn't really doing this for him (Yes she was.) but there was no way that she'd get through the day without contacting him in some way. She had already become just like all the other women in his life and left him. She needed him to know that she was thinking about him.

She finally settled on simple. No punctuation, no happy faces.

_Happy Birthday_

_I miss you_

She thought about ditching the phone right away, but something inside her needed to see if he'd respond. Instead she powered it down and shoved it into the bottom of her messenger bag and walked into her class. It was her long day, three classes and a photography assignment for the school newspaper at a women's soccer game versus Cal State Long Beach. It wasn't until almost nine hours later that she let herself check the phone.

As soon as she powered it up, she saw that he'd responded.

_I miss you too. _

And so it began. On dates that were eventful in their lives, they'd exchange a few lines of text. On her birthday, the text was the same as hers was on his. It came from an unknown number to her regular phone but she'd known it was him, just as he'd known it was her.

_Happy Birthday_

_I miss you_

_I miss you too_

On the fifth anniversary of Lilly's death, she sent him a photo of a bottle of champagne in the sand on a beach. He responded in kind a few minutes later with a photo of a silly shot glass and a bottle of scotch.

And so it went, birthdays, Christmas, Lilly's death date, a photo now and then but usually one or two sentences. Both seemed to understand that talking wasn't allowed, but the need to share life events with someone who had been a part of their lives for so long was there. The need for that tentative connection was strong and, at least for Veronica, helped to stem her guilt about leaving. She still considered it the best decision at the time. She had cost so many people so much. Wallace, her dad, Mac, Logan. All of them had been hurt or placed in danger by her need for justice. They did it out of love for her, she knew, but she couldn't live with another loved one dying or hurting because of her.

Even during the time in Sophomore and Junior years of high school when they were enemies, he had been there. She could see him, even if it was to glare at or verbally spar with. Same with Senior year when they were working together, but hurt feelings were there on both sides. Even after their last, final breakup, she'd still be able to see him on campus. Since she'd left Hearst, the number of times she'd turned to tell him something or picked up the phone to call him about something ludacris she'd seen were innumerable. These small texts on important days were a small comfort to the ache, now dulled by time and distance.

The day she graduated Stanford she sent him a picture of her cap and gown from her regular phone instead of the burner phone. He responded fifteen minutes later.

_Congratulations. _

And then he included a picture of his own cap and gown. She smiled. Proud of him for finishing something that he'd never really wanted to begin with. She'd had to convince him to go with her to Hearst in the first place. At least she could feel that she'd been some kind of positive for him.

_You too. _

Veronica, Mac and Wallace met in Santa Barbara to celebrate their college graduation. Veronica still hadn't been back to Neptune for more than a weekend to see her dad at the holidays and the three friends wanted to catch up. They went on a vineyard trek complete with a limo (Wallace had suggested the biking tour, but Veronica and Mac had just stared at him.)to take them to various wineries. She was feeling pretty tipsy when she felt her phone vibrate.

It was a beautiful picture of a sunrise with palm trees and surfers in the background. It had to be Hawaii. She quickly took a picture of her wine glass with Mac and Wallace in the background. They were sitting on a patio outside their third vineyard.

_What did I tell you at Alterna-prom?_

Veronica stared at her phone. This was not the norm. They didn't go back and forth or ask deep questions. Especially not questions like that. But the question triggered her near perfect memory of that conversation. The song in the background, the smell of booze and sweat and pheremones, the way his eyes had stared into hers so intensely.

She also had a near perfect memory of the morning after. Her nerves and how hard it had been to knock, the way he'd leaned against the door. How It had been such a blow to know that he could say such powerfully beautiful things to her and then turn around and fuck someone else. It had fed directly into her insecurities when it came to their physical relationship and had definitely been one of the reasons she had reacted so strongly to finding out it had been Madison (Lucifer) he had slept with when they were broken up Freshman year at Hearst. It had been their undoing. Her knee jerk reaction to run from her problems and his to try to fuck them away.

She glanced at Wallace and Mac, deep in a conversation about some guy Parker had been dating for a year and how long it would take them to get engaged. She walked a little down a path that led to some grape vines and sat on a bench there.

_That we were Epic._

Ding. She quickly silenced her phone and glanced around. Was she really tipsy enough for this unspoken conversation?

_Epic how? _She laughed. Yep. That was the script. It had been her line, though.

_Spanning years and continents. Lives ruined, bloodshed. EPIC._She sighed over the words as she typed them. They still tore at her heart.

_Wow. I'm good. _

She laughed and then looked up as Wallace called her name. She dropped her phone into her purse and walked over to him and climbed into the limo for the next stop on their tour. The following morning she woke up and tiptoed over to her stuff trying not to wake Mac and Wallace. She she swiped her phone on, she saw he'd texted her again.

_I'm sorry. _

She smiled sadly and typed even though she knew it was super early morning in Hawaii.

_Me too. _

When he joined the Navy he sent her a picture of his enlistment papers. She desperately wanted to call him to find out the story, but didn't. The next time she sent him a picture (her tiny apartment window in New York) it took him two weeks to respond.

_No cells at OCS, Nice view. _

After that, things got hectic for her and evidently for him too. The texts lessened in frequency to birthdays and Lilly again. Law school was demanding and so was the Navy. He usually texted her before he went on deployment so that she'd know that he wouldn't get her texts. He always included his email in the text so she had a way to get something to him if she needed to. She'd only used it once- when Backup had died at a lovely old age of fourteen.

It had been nine years when she was standing in Piz's work office and saw the news about Bonnie Deville/ Carrie Bishop. Nine years since she'd seen or spoken to Logan. They'd never once called to talk. It was the Unspoken Rule. But she wanted to call him. To help him. To tell him she knew that he'd never hurt anyone like that. That she was finally able to trust herself that the faith she had in him was real.

When her phone rang, she stared at it and instinctively hit the ignore button since she was sitting in a law office waiting for her second interview.

When he called again immediately, she got up and walked to a hallway and took a deep breath.

"So, What's new with you?" She said for lack of any other greeting.

"I need your help, Veronica." Came the voice she hadn't heard in nine years. He sounded the same. She had unknowingly been reading all of his texts with his voice in her head for all these years.

"I… Don't really do that anymore." She said, thinking fast about if she'd be able to get a flight to Neptune tonight or if she'd have to wait until tomorrow.

"Just hear me out."


	2. Logan- those 9 years

A/N: Logan's POV- Those nine years-

* * *

When he woke that morning he rolled over and buried his face in his pillow. He hated his birthday. Why shouldn't he? He had no family, no girlfriend, no one who really knew him aside from a drunk, high party boy best friend. He sighed. No pity parties on your birthday, man, as he rolled out of bed and into his shower. He really should move out of this place. Maybe a house was a good birthday present to himself.

He went to his classes, but no one knew it was his birthday, of course. As he walked into his English Lit class his phone rang. It was his accountant wishing him happy birthday. He mentioned that he might be starting to look for some real estate and the guy launched into how great that would be. Awesome. His accountant was the first person to wish him happy birthday. Fantastic. He hung up and put his phone on silent for class.

When he walked out of class, flirting with the cute redhead who always sat in front of him, he pulled his phone out to call Dick to see if he wanted to hit the waves that evening and saw that he had a text from an unknown number. Logan wasn't stupid. He didn't give his number out to randoms. After what had happened with that fucking reporter, he was even more cautious. If he wanted to hook up with someone, he went to a bar or the coffee shop or whatever and took the girl back to his place from there. No numbers were usually exchanged. Sometimes, he'd take her number, but usually he just moved on.

_Happy Birthday_

_I miss you_

He stared at the text. His brain taking a second to catch up with his heart, which was pounding a mile a minute. Veronica. It had to be Veronica. It wasn't her number. She'd probably used a burner phone. He stared at the words. _Happy Birthday_. She remembered. _I miss you._ She missed him. He didn't know if he should be angry or not. After all, it had been her choice to leave. Her choice, no discussion. He was glad that she had at least told him she was leaving and not just simply disappeared. Like Lilly, Like his mom.

_Happy Birthday_

_I miss you_

He had been angry at her. Furious, even. When she'd told him she was leaving. It was after her FBI internship, she'd been back a few days when she called him and asked to meet him for coffee. He was secretly (ha) hoping that she was going to tell him that she and Piz had broken up and that she wanted him back. His hopes were partially right. She and Piz had broken up. Right after the confrontation in the cafeteria with Gory, in fact. But she didn't want to get back together. She was leaving Neptune. Transferring to Stanford. He heard all of her reasons: She was out of control. She had put her loved ones in danger. She needed a fresh start. But all he heard was that she was leaving HIM. They weren't even together and she was breaking up with him. He'd simply gotten up and walked away from her. Glancing back one time to see her holding her head in her hands and staring at the table where they'd been sitting. There was nothing he could say to change her mind. Nothing he could do. She had stayed in Neptune for him and for her dad for Freshman year, but now she was getting what she wanted. Out. Away. Gone.

He had gotten very very drunk that night. He'd stayed that way for a while. He hadn't seen her again.

But he was sure in his gut that this was from Veronica. It wasn't a random text. It was from Veronica and she was thinking about him. He smiled. Maybe he did have someone who gave a damn about him. At least a little. He thought about calling the number, but he knew she wouldn't pick up. If she wanted to talk to him, she would have called. She'd used a burner phone, so she might have already tossed it, but he didn't think so. So he simply responded:

_I miss you too._

* * *

In the days leading up to her birthday he debated with himself. Call her normal number? Text the burn phone number she had texted him? He decided to tell her the same way and the same thing that she had told him.

_Happy Birthday_

_I miss you_

Sent from a burner phone to her normal number. He didn't want to risk her not having the burner phone she'd used to text him any more. He did miss her. She'd been such a major part of his life for so long. It had felt so wrong to not have her there at all. The years of the Fab Four had been the best of his life. Aside from Lilly breaking up with him constantly and his dad beating him when he was in town, anyway. He had Duncan and Veronica and Lilly as his family. Even after Lilly had been killed and he'd been in such a dark place, he'd been able to see Veronica. Sure, he'd been a complete jackass to her, but she'd still been there. After his mom had jumped and he'd stopped the hostilities, she'd been in journalism class snickering at his sarcastic comments and razzing him to write his stories.

Then there had been the Camelot. His utter terror when he'd heard the male voice come on the phone after she'd been so scared. And then she'd kissed him. And then he'd kissed her. And everything stopped and reformed. It hadn't been like he hadn't known that she was hot. Especially with the boots and the clothes. She'd just always been off limits. And then she wasn't and she was his secret girlfriend.

And then it wasn't secret, but it wasn't real either. And then she was apologizing again for thinking for a second that he could have hurt Lilly. But he was reeling from betrayal. His dad, his mom, Lilly. Veronica. Plus the murder charges. Was it any wonder they hadn't made it?

And then there was Senior year. What a cluster. But again, she'd been there throughout. And he'd been there for her. And then Alterna Prom. She'd never told him what he'd said to her that made her come back that morning. It was one of the things that they had never spoken of, but probably should have. Definitely should have. It was all a blur until the elevator doors shut on her pained face as she walked away from him once again. Only this time it seemed he deserved it. I wish I knew what I'd said so that I could say it again and get her to come back again.

The burner phone buzzed in his pocket.

_I miss you too_

* * *

He was sitting on the deck of his beach house on the fifth anniversary of Lilly's death. He had a stupid shot glass from his last trip to Vegas and a bottle of scotch when his phone beeped somewhere behind him. His immediate thought was "Veronica."

He went to find his phone and saw that it was a picture this time. He waited a second while it loaded and then smiled softly. Champagne on the beach. That was a fitting tribute as well. He took a picture of the shot glass (she'd know) and scotch and sent it back.

Three days before he graduated Hearst, he was picking up his cap and gown and pulled out his phone. He'd missed a text at some point. Veronica Mars flashed across his screen. He almost dropped his phone. They'd been going back and forth every so often for the last three years, but it had always been burner phones. Some subterfuge that she needed, he guessed. But It seemed she was fine with him knowing for sure (like there had ever been a doubt.) that it was Logan and Veronica communicating. He opened the message, hoping it was something that he could handle. It was a picture of her cap and gown. She'd done it as well. Again, as if there had been a doubt. He did wonder what her plans were now, hopefully to come back to Neptune, although his plans might take him away at the same time her's were bringing her back.

_Congratulations_

He included a picture of the cap and gown he'd just picked up.

_You too._

* * *

On the beach on the North Shore of Oahu having just spent hours surfing some pretty awesome waves when he took a picture and sent it to Veronica. It was beautiful here. Mac had told him in passing that she, Wallace and Veronica were meeting in the middle of California to drink lots of wine and celebrate graduating. He knew they'd be together now. Sure enough, a few minutes later he got a response with a picture of a half drunk wine glass and several others in the background. He could just make out Mac and Wallace in the shadows behind the glass. He wondered if she was tipsy yet. He took a risk. He's been wondering the answer to this question for four years.

_What did I tell you at Alterna-prom?_

He waited. Unsure if she would answer. Not knowing if she would simply ignore him. His phone buzzed.

_That we were Epic._

He vaguely remembered her saying something about that the next morning. But there was no way that had been it. That "Epic" had made her come back the next morning.

_Epic how?_.

_Spanning years and continents. Lives ruined, bloodshed. EPIC._

Seriousl, Logan? You'd actually said that? And she had left. Only to come back, but not soon enough. Her knee jerk reaction to run from her emotions and his to try to fuck them away had always been their undoing. And he'd been right. They had spanned years. Maybe not continents yet, though his next plans would probably take care of that. Lives ruined. Ha. Bloodshed. Double ha.

But still. That was a damn good speech. He was surprised that she hadn't jumped him right there in the middle of AlternaProm for that speech. A lesser woman, or maybe just one who trusted people a bit more, would never have been able to resist such a speech. He had a brief flashback/fantasy where they were in the old suite at the Grande in the middle of AlternaProm and Veronica leapt into his arms and he carried her bride style- no not bride style her legs wrapped around his waist which he spun them into his room and slammed the door on the rest of the world. That is how he'd have reacted to that speech if she'd given it to him. The "if onlies" in their lives would kill him if he started thinking about them. So he went for funny.

_Wow. I'm good. _

And then he remembered her face as the elevators had closed on her after she'd found Kendal wrapped around him the next morning. Just as he didn't remember the speech, he didn't remember calling Kendal or anything else that night. What a fuck up. Everything would have been different if Kendal hadn't been there. Everything. He laid back in the sand and stared up at the palm trees around him. He could hear Dick shouting in the background as he caught a wave. Finally he picked up his phone again and sent one more message.

_I'm sorry. _

The next morning he woke early to go out on the water again and saw his phone already had a message.

_Me too_

* * *

When he joined the Navy he sent her a picture of his enlistment papers. He desperately wanted to call and tell her why, but didn't. The next time she sent him a picture (her tiny apartment window in New York) it took him two weeks to respond.

_No cells at OCS, Nice view. _

After that, things got hectic for him and evidently for her too. The texts lessened in frequency to birthdays and Lilly again. Law school was demanding and so was the Navy. He usually texted her before he went on deployment so that she'd know that he wouldn't get her texts. He always included his email in the text so she had a way to get something to him if she needed to. She'd only used it once- when Backup had died at a lovely old age of fourteen.

It had been nine years when he stood on the deck at his beach house in Neptune and stared at her number on his phone. Nine years since he'd seen or spoken to Veronica. They'd never once called to talk. It was the Unspoken Rule. But he needed to call her. To ask her to help him. To tell him she knew that he'd never hurt anyone like that. That she had faith in him still.

He pressed the call button and waited. It went to voicemail suspiciously fast. Nope. Not okay, Veronica. When he called again immediately, it rang longer this time. He knew she was watching it. Finally, the line clicked open.

"So, What's new with you?" She sounded the same. A little breathless. He had unknowingly been reading all of her texts with her voice in his head for all these years.

"I need your help, Veronica." And it was true. He needed her help. Badly. But he just kinda needed her too.

"I… Don't really do that anymore." She said. But he needed her to do it again. To believe in him, to help him.

"Just hear me out."


End file.
